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Pirating in of itself is not a bad concept. As someone previously mentioned, it allows for material to spread to a much greater audience. A casual download can spawn thousands of new fans who might go on to buy the real thing just to support their newfound idol of praise. The issue lies in the availability. Some tv shows aren't available for purchase in some countries, and if so the only solution is piracy. If the product cannot reach the audience the audience must reach the product - one way or another.

For example, when the ME2 OST was released, I had NO WAY of obtaining it legally. It was only out on the Amazon sites (at the time) and since I live in Sweden I can't purchase digital music from Amazon. So, the only way for me to obtain and enjoy the music was to obtain it illegally. If I could buy a CD version, I would. It's worth it.

Part of why I insist on waiting for the delayed CE here in Sweden is just that I *want* to spend more money on this game. It's bloody worth every penny. Sure, I do it for the extras too, but in the end I just want to support BioWare so they can make more games. They're a part of what I do with my spare time. When I am bored, I turn to their creations to be entertained. Not acknowledging the inherent value in this is frankly quite insulting. 

They put down years of work into giving us hours of entertainment, an investment which hasn't just cost a lot of time but also a lot of money. Games don't make themselves. The developers must feed themselves and their families, and they deserve money for off-work entertainment just as any of us do. Calling them franchise-milkers is first of all ignorant and also extremely rude.

If EA throws another blatantly refurbished sports clone in your face with no quality or essence whatsoever, then you have the right to call them franchise milkers whose only in it for the money and deny them the money. They put no effort into it, so why should you? But when someone offer you a well-polished slice of god himself in gaming form, and only ask for some of your money in return, you can afford to part with that money. It is worth it. The quality is an investment. If the money is all you care about you should let the money entertain you instead of the games.

But of course some pirates don't see the point of this. They download because they are greedy, and not because they suffer restrictions on availability. Not even if they like the product, they will want to pay for it. Why should they? Why shouldn't they? They can't answer that question. They do it because it's a simple solution that doesn't require them to part with anything.

And what's worse... in the end they'll just complain anyway. They'll point fingers and accuse everyone who ever asked for just payment for their services to be money-milking bastards. Ironically, It's people who don't pay for themselves who hate paying anything. All the while the guy who paid for ME2 will sit at home, content and happy despite the lost 60 dollars in his bank account. He'll be happy because he'll know the sacrifice was worth it. He'll be happy because he knows that it was a fair deal.



Turned out to be a little more dramatic than I wanted it to be, but just take the dramatic parts with a pinch of salt and you'll be shiny.